Sex, drugs and alcohol at WHS

Friday

Mar 28, 2008 at 2:00 AM

HAMPTON — Winnacunnet School Board members said they were "disturbed" by a recent survey that shows more students engaging in sex and experimenting with drugs and alcohol than in the last study two years ago.

Patrick Cronin

HAMPTON — Winnacunnet School Board members said they were "disturbed" by a recent survey that shows more students engaging in sex and experimenting with drugs and alcohol than in the last study two years ago.

"We need to do something as soon as possible," Winnacunnet School Board member Dick Goodman said. "We are talking about the health of our young people and we need to do more."

WHS Social Worker Telly Westerberg told officials Wednesday night the results of the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey show more students are participating in riskier behaviors than they did back in 2005 in nearly all the categories.

"Everything else is up, some more significantly than others," Westerberg said. "What's really important when looking at statistics like this is the percentage difference from the prior survey. Anything that has increased by 5 percent over the prior year is significant."

Westerberg said the number of students binge drinking and who smoke marijuana on a regular basis fits into the category of being significant. The number of students binge drinking rose from 30 percent to 36 percent while the number of those who said they smoke marijuana on a regular basis increased from 23 percent to 29 percent. Westerberg said officials also saw a large increase in the number of students who use inhalants to get high.

The number of students who rode in a vehicle driven by someone under the influence of alcohol increased significantly as did students who brought a weapon into school.

Westerberg said survey answers regarding sexual activity indicated the number of WHS students who said they participated in sexual activities was higher than the state average of all the towns that participated in the survey. Forty-eight percent of WHS students surveyed said they have had sexual intercourse, with 17 percent of those saying they have had more than four partners in their lifetime.

"I'm very disappointed in these numbers," said Winnacunnet School Board member Maria Brown.

Brown said she was upset with fact the board has done a lot with drugs and alcohol education in the aftermath of the 2005 survey but it didn't seem to make a dent in the numbers.

School Board member Chris Singleton said this is not just a high-school problem. Singleton said a lot of the risky behaviors start before students enter high school.

"Each of the schools that feed into Winnacunnet have the responsibility to help parents and children understand what these problems are," Goodman said.

Brown said the community also needs to get involved.

"I hope the community begins to realize this is a problem and we all need to work together," she said. "This is a wake-up call."

Westerberg said trying to get the community involved has proven difficult in the past but hopefully it will work this time.

While a drug forum after the 2005 Youth Risk Behavior Survey was well attended, interest soon faded. No one showed up to two recent informal meetings in Hampton and Seabrook regarding problems with drugs and alcohol.

"I don't know if it's just that the community doesn't want to deal with it or that people generally do not think it's a problem," Westerberg said.

Winnacunnet Principal Randy Zito said the School Board could always do more, like implementing drug and alcohol tests for those who participate in extracurricular activities.

But Westerberg said statistics show implementing those tests only slightly decrease drug and alcohol use.

"The word is 'trust,'" Winnacunnet School Board Chairman Henry Marsh said. "If you don't trust us we are certainly not going to trust you. As a high school, Winnacunnet has trust in its students. We're not talking about all of the kids, we are talking about kids at risk."

While the board nixed the drug-test idea, it did vote to share results of the survey with the SAU 21 Joint Board. It also agreed to partner with Seacoast Safety Net to hold another drug forum at the high school.

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